I'm 5'9", 150lbs, and almost 30. I have the opportunity to work out four days a week. Ultimate goals are improving strength for grappling and looking good naked. Max bench is around 165lbs. Not sure about squats since I had knee surgery awhile back and have been hesitant to test my knee ever since. Thanks!

Rope Pushdowns (3 sets of 12-15): The key here is to pull your hands apart at the bottom. If you can’t feel the burn with these, then there’s something wrong. These hit the “horseshoe” that the ladies salivate over.

Cable French Press Machine (3 sets of 8-12) Killer for size. These’ll put slabs of meat on the backs of your arms. Great for the long head of the tricep.

Close Grip Burnouts: (3 sets of ???): This is an excellent finisher. Just grab a barbell, or better yet, an EZ-Curl bar, and rep out, baby. No need to add any weight (maybe nickels if you’re using an EZ-Curl Bar) – just hit it for as many reps as you can muster. If you have a spotter, finish the set with 10 negatives. Have her lift the bar off your chest… you just lower it as slow as you can. Your girlfriend can thank me later for this one.

Tuesday: Pecs

After guns, pecs is the second most important muscle group. It consists of three different muscles, the upper pecs, the lower pecs and the middle or main pecs.

Incline Smith Machine Press (3 sets of 10-12): This works the upper pecs really well. It’s important to always start with inclines. Some guys work the flat stuff first, but upper pecs are what really draw attention. When you’re wearing a tight t-shirt, the upper pec’s are what really give your chest that “pop”.

Flat Smith Machine Press (3 sets of 10-12): Not much to say here. Use a weight that lets you get 8-9 reps, then have your spotter help you with a couple forced reps, then a couple negatives. Can you say “burn”?

Decline flyes (3 sets of 15-20): I don’t really like using dumbbells because, truthfully, they’re often a recipe for injury. It’s best to lock in your range of motion with a machine of some sort, but sometimes, the flyes machine doesn’t let you raise the seat enough to make it a true decline. Just be sure to use light weight on these. The idea is to control it and really squeeze your lower pecs together at the top. You know you’ve been doing good on these when you can grasp a ten pound plate with your meavage (male cleavage).

Flye Machine (3 sets of 12-15): You can go a little heavier on these because it’s a machine, but still keep it relatively light. This is a good shaper for the main pecs.

Cable Crossovers (1 set of ???): That’s right… burn it out. Every workout should end with a burnout set. It gets your metabolism going. If you want to be shredded, take my advice.

Wednesday: Guns

Repeat Monday or some variation of. As we talked about, guns are the strongest, most important muscle group and for that reason, they can tolerate more work than the others.

Thursday: Deltoids

Giant Set (3-way superset), side cable laterals, rear cable laterals, front raises with a plate (3 sets of 12-15 each): You want cannonball delts? This is how to get it done. Make sure to change the setup on the cable machine between subsets 1 and 2 as quickly as possible. You want this to be one continuous set for the best pump.

If you do your giant set the right way, you really don’t need to do anything more for delts. If you want, you can do a little bit of Smith Machine work, but make sure not to overtrain. If you get too much lactic acid in your muscles, it can disintegrate the fibers. Maybe just one burnout set with no weight.

Friday: Lats and Quads

No one really sees these muscles, so you definitely want to work them at the end of the week. If you live in a warmer climate and have your shirt off a lot, you may want to hit your lats a little harder than most.

Lats:

Wide Grip, Behind the Neck Pulldowns (3 sets of 10-12): These give you the V-shape. The wider you can grip the bar, the wider your V will be. It’s fact and has been written about in a lot of articles. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, bitches, it’s Lat-man.

Front Pulldowns (3 sets of 10-12): Again, think wide!

Machine Pulldowns (3 sets of 10-12, 1 burnout): Hopefully, your club has one of these Hammer Strength machines cuz it’s the BOMB!

Quads:

Be careful here. You don’t want big tree trunk legs. You’ve got to hit these just enough to bring out the tear drop and, if you’re lucky, maybe a few striations.

Leg extensions (5 sets of 15-20, 1 burnout): Keep the reps high for maximum pain. You’ll notice I put these down for 5 sets. Just concentrate on these. Most other leg exercises will make you too bulky, and jeans for big legged guys are hard to find, right, fellas? By all means, DO NOT squat unless you want to end up in a wheelchair with your knee muscles all torn up.

Leg curls (3 sets of 15-20): These work the back of your quads. A lot of people don’t bother with them, but it’s a little known fact that you can get striations in the back of your quads, too. Just keep it light to work on shape.

Everyday: Abs

Crunches on a ball (5 sets of 100): Get a ball at home so you can dedicate some time to shredding up your abs. Every other set, go side to side so you hit your intercostals and serratus

Rope Pushdowns (3 sets of 12-15): The key here is to pull your hands apart at the bottom. If you can’t feel the burn with these, then there’s something wrong. These hit the “horseshoe” that the ladies salivate over.

Cable French Press Machine (3 sets of 8-12) Killer for size. These’ll put slabs of meat on the backs of your arms. Great for the long head of the tricep.

Close Grip Burnouts: (3 sets of ???): This is an excellent finisher. Just grab a barbell, or better yet, an EZ-Curl bar, and rep out, baby. No need to add any weight (maybe nickels if you’re using an EZ-Curl Bar) – just hit it for as many reps as you can muster. If you have a spotter, finish the set with 10 negatives. Have her lift the bar off your chest… you just lower it as slow as you can. Your girlfriend can thank me later for this one.

Tuesday: Pecs

After guns, pecs is the second most important muscle group. It consists of three different muscles, the upper pecs, the lower pecs and the middle or main pecs.

Incline Smith Machine Press (3 sets of 10-12): This works the upper pecs really well. It’s important to always start with inclines. Some guys work the flat stuff first, but upper pecs are what really draw attention. When you’re wearing a tight t-shirt, the upper pec’s are what really give your chest that “pop”.

Flat Smith Machine Press (3 sets of 10-12): Not much to say here. Use a weight that lets you get 8-9 reps, then have your spotter help you with a couple forced reps, then a couple negatives. Can you say “burn”?

Decline flyes (3 sets of 15-20): I don’t really like using dumbbells because, truthfully, they’re often a recipe for injury. It’s best to lock in your range of motion with a machine of some sort, but sometimes, the flyes machine doesn’t let you raise the seat enough to make it a true decline. Just be sure to use light weight on these. The idea is to control it and really squeeze your lower pecs together at the top. You know you’ve been doing good on these when you can grasp a ten pound plate with your meavage (male cleavage).

Flye Machine (3 sets of 12-15): You can go a little heavier on these because it’s a machine, but still keep it relatively light. This is a good shaper for the main pecs.

Cable Crossovers (1 set of ???): That’s right… burn it out. Every workout should end with a burnout set. It gets your metabolism going. If you want to be shredded, take my advice.

Wednesday: Guns

Repeat Monday or some variation of. As we talked about, guns are the strongest, most important muscle group and for that reason, they can tolerate more work than the others.

Thursday: Deltoids

Giant Set (3-way superset), side cable laterals, rear cable laterals, front raises with a plate (3 sets of 12-15 each): You want cannonball delts? This is how to get it done. Make sure to change the setup on the cable machine between subsets 1 and 2 as quickly as possible. You want this to be one continuous set for the best pump.

If you do your giant set the right way, you really don’t need to do anything more for delts. If you want, you can do a little bit of Smith Machine work, but make sure not to overtrain. If you get too much lactic acid in your muscles, it can disintegrate the fibers. Maybe just one burnout set with no weight.

Friday: Lats and Quads

No one really sees these muscles, so you definitely want to work them at the end of the week. If you live in a warmer climate and have your shirt off a lot, you may want to hit your lats a little harder than most.

Lats:

Wide Grip, Behind the Neck Pulldowns (3 sets of 10-12): These give you the V-shape. The wider you can grip the bar, the wider your V will be. It’s fact and has been written about in a lot of articles. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, bitches, it’s Lat-man.

Front Pulldowns (3 sets of 10-12): Again, think wide!

Machine Pulldowns (3 sets of 10-12, 1 burnout): Hopefully, your club has one of these Hammer Strength machines cuz it’s the BOMB!

Quads:

Be careful here. You don’t want big tree trunk legs. You’ve got to hit these just enough to bring out the tear drop and, if you’re lucky, maybe a few striations.

Leg extensions (5 sets of 15-20, 1 burnout): Keep the reps high for maximum pain. You’ll notice I put these down for 5 sets. Just concentrate on these. Most other leg exercises will make you too bulky, and jeans for big legged guys are hard to find, right, fellas? By all means, DO NOT squat unless you want to end up in a wheelchair with your knee muscles all torn up.

Leg curls (3 sets of 15-20): These work the back of your quads. A lot of people don’t bother with them, but it’s a little known fact that you can get striations in the back of your quads, too. Just keep it light to work on shape.

Everyday: Abs

Crunches on a ball (5 sets of 100): Get a ball at home so you can dedicate some time to shredding up your abs. Every other set, go side to side so you hit your intercostals and serratus

Not sure if serious.

If its working out for grappling, work on your compound movements. Grip strength etc.

3 days a week Deadlifts , squats, bench, cleans

Other days work your grip, pinching weight plates together 30/60 seconds once its too easy use heavier plates.

Hang from a pull up bar add weight to weight belt.

Pull ups while holding onto towels over the bar to increase grip strength

P.S. For the strength portion, stick with the "OFF SEASON" plan. Use whatever tools / mode you have available to you for the E.S.D. Jump rope, hill sprints, eliptical, football field shuttle runs, etc.

training the neck should be a priority for all combat athletes. In fact I often begin with this area to be sure it gets the attention it deserves. The minimum requirements are Flexion - Extension - Lateral Flexion (each side) and a good shrug movement. I prefer a dedicated machine. Here is another article from my blog laying out many options. (the # 2 just means do it twice) Once is enough if you do it well.

Resisted rotation means to do work where you resist force trying to turn you rather than actually turning (like wood-chops etc). I like to use cable machines for this. Most often I shoot for 30 seconds holds and add weight when they can control the resistance easily.

this keeps the volume and number of exercises relatively low, so i can still do other activities and cardio without feeling beat up and sore all the time. the key is to ALWAYS push for more weight or more reps from workout to workout. maybe the first time i move the weight up, i will do 5x4x3 instead of 5x5x5 for a particular exercise. next week my only goal is to do at least 1 more rep. continue until i hit desired reps for all sets, then bump the weight up. i use as small a weight increment as i can, 2.5-5lbs. in my experience, this allows you to progress farther before hitting the wall vs. bumping the weight 10lbs per session.

continue until this no longer works, then either switch out the exercise for a different one, lower the weight down and restart the cycle, or switch to a different set/rep scheme(maybe from 3x5 to 8x2-3 at a higher weight).

At the time I made the original post, I was doing BJJ four times a week. Unfortunately, since then, due to various obligations, I haven't been able to get in the gym, although I have been lifting.

I'm wondering about my eating. I'm pretty soft around the middle, but my overall bodyweight is low (150lbs give or take), so I'm not sure if I should be eating everything in sight or trying to pay attention to calories. Also, when I need to eat is a concern. Should I try intermittent fasting or the old lots-of-small-meals-throughout-the-day?

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